Institute of Engineering and Computational Mechanics
Contact Problems in Multibody Dynamics
Frictional Contact Algorithms for Elastic Multibody Systems
Project Description
Frictional contacts occur in almost every engineering system, e.g. in disk brake systems. Therefore, the development of numerical methods for solving contact problems accurately and efficiently has become the focus of many researchers.
Contact problems are divided into two contact types, impacts and continual contact. The continual contact consists of the normal contact and the tangential contact. The normal contact acts perpendicular to the contact area and prevents colliding bodies from penetrating. The tangential contact is due to friction. The friction forces lay within the contact plane. Similar to the continual contact it is distinguished between normal and frictional impacts. Both contact types are described by unilateral contact conditions. They lead to inequality constraints, which must be properly incorporated into the overall equations of motion of the mechanical system.
Depending on the physical effects to be investigated mechanical systems are modelled in different ways. Systems with small deformations and large motions are generally built up of rigid bodies whereas flexible bodies are employed for e.g. performing wave propagation, deformation or stress analysis. Elastic multibody systems represent a combination of the rigid and the flexible body approach by including flexible deformations and large reference motions.
The objective of this project is to develop frictional contact algorithms for elastic multibody systems. They are to be utilized for the investigation of the squeeling effects occuring in disk break systems.